For 6 years, from 1953 through 1958, Graceville, Florida was known as "the biggest little town in Professional Baseball".  Graceville is located in the northern panhandle of Florida, around 35 miles south of Dothan, Alabama.  In the mid fifties, Graceville's population was 1658, yet they successfully supported a Class D team in the AFL.  This gave them the distinction of being the smallest town at that time  to have a professional baseball team (the smallest city to support a team in AFL history was Headland, which was in the AFL in 1950-1952, and had a population at the time of 1090).  The team was financed by a group of Graceville's wealthiest citizens including G. W. Morrow, who operated one of the world's biggest peanut processing plants, and Mayor Neil Williams. In this time, when television was still in it's infancy, the "thing to do" on a summer evening or weekend afternoon was to go to the ball game, not only cheer on the team, but to socialize. Graceville was proud of their team, and especially proud of the status it brought to the town. Former Graceville Batboy, Lane Harris has fond memories of the way it was: "My father, Sonny Harris, had a sports program on WOOF radio during that time called "Sunny Spots in Sports". He reported all of the Alabama-Florida league game scores every morning. He was the scorekeeper for Graceville as well as the public address announcer. I took over these duties when I was in the 11th and 12 grades. Baseball was 'king' in Graceville, and the whole town thrived on baseball stories year round. I grew up in Graceville during this time, and delivered newspapers to all of the members of the Graceville Oilers..... (they usually took The Montgomery Advertiser because of it's excellent sports reporting). As batboy for 2 years, I also travelled with them on road trips (in station wagons)."

Sonny Harris, the voice of Oilers baseball.

The Oilers were brought to town by a group of local businessmen, lead by G.W. Morrow, who ran Greenwood Products Company, a peanut processing business just beyond the first base side of Sportsman's Park.

Harris did more than just score and announce Oiler games:  When Frank Pericola, a sports writer for Panama City, came to town with the Fliers.the Panama City Station, .WDLP Radio,  would have  Harris do the play by play for them. Frank Pericola would cover the games for his paper and Harris always had Frank Pericola help him broadcast the games. Charles Howard, whose brother was an Oiler batboy, remebers the Oilers and Sonny Harris this way:. My brother, Jimmy Norris,  was a bat boy at home for the Graceville Oilers.  My aunt Althea Mae Norris, worked at the post office at Graceville.  As a kid, I would go down to the pool in Graceville,  and on Saturdays  all the players would come down on around 10:00am to take in a morning  swim.  Many players stayed in a big white house in front of Mr Jones' residence.  Jones  who owned a car dealership in town.

When I think about the Oilers, I remember  Sonny Harris.  He would sit in the announcer's booth and call  the games, smoke cigars, and eat peanuts.  Sonny  had a deep booming voice and had a talent for calling a game. Graceville was fun back then: The stands would be filled with excited fans, and  I would watch the games by climbing up one of  the trees behind the outfield fence. I couldn't afford to  get in the games, but sometimes my aunt would pay my admission to the games.  It was a sad day when baseball left Graceville.   I wish that small  towns could bring  the game  like we had back then.  Seeing a Graceville baseball game on Sunday afternoon was something I will never forget. Graceville began to fade when the Oilers left town.  Things were never the same but sometimes I can still see Sonny Harris smoking his cigars and calling the game.  I'll never forget the smell of cigars and peanuts, and that booming voice. Now that was baseball!.

Sonny on the air